Falling, Tell Me Your Story essay by Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres


Cultural Director, Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano


As time goes by, it is easy to realize that to reach the year 2000 has not meant anything in terms of integration. Thousands of years have passed during which man keeps repeating all the mistakes he still condemns in his fellowmen. For this reason, the moments of reflection must deserve more importance in any society. Maybe in that way we can avoid actions which go from the daily social disorder to the crazy hecatomb which threatens the world. In this context riddled with so many peculiarities, the artists who have been those who, seeking the catharsis or simply affected by the terrible impact of tragedy, succumbed to the pressing need to express, through their works, the magnitude of indelible impressions. There are countless examples of emblematic paintings that turned into evidences when denouncing the atrocities of their time.

The terrorist attacks on September 11th raised in the world a new awareness which was indifferent to similar actions suffered in other countries. When such events happen in our own city, when acquaintances, friends or parents are innocent victims of the barbarity, a pressing need to express our rejection awakes. Thus, it is perfectly understandable that an artist like Grimanesa Amoros, who lives in New York, just a few blocks from the place of the havoc responds to her internal need to express, by means of the plastic discourse, the horror of its consequences. Putting forward her passionate and clear personality Grimanesa bravely rejects the violence and she does it without resignation, very far away from any form of procuress concession. And to do this, she uses the languages which are an integral part of her creative and authentic nature.

All the images broadcast by the media during the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York, covered the world with a veil of horror, but those who lived in situ the fatal events were the ones who remained impressed by the visions that, over time, will become metaphors of the triviality of power, of the fragility of the world. It is evident that under these concepts Grimanesa assumed the development of a proposition whose title “Falling” led us definitively to a total questioning of a terrifying fact that being no longer abstact becomes a tangible and omnipresent threat.

Sensitive and sensual, the artist finds in the monochromatic and minimalist discourse the way to illustrate the physical disintegration of a world symbol of power such as the World Trade Center. Using the recurrent inclusion of textures, she depicts in a very personal way the absolute vulnerability of the material. While the absence of color plunges us into an oneiric state confronting us with the irremediable without pity, always adrift, always searching for an escape towards hope.

“Tell me your story” is the result of a series of personal experiences where the artist discovers some behaviors unknown to her until now. During the research and recapitulation process of experiences, Grimanesa plays between science and art achieving a symbiosis which is translated into visual metaphors trying to reach further than the superficial glance. Shapes that could be recognized as a shade of sidereal landscapes, illustrate an intimate proposal far away from the loudness of any color hue. The result of an experience that ceased to be personal to become a paradigm when it turns to our reasoning, something that we can feel without analysis, something that we can understand without envisioning.

Grimanesa Amoros, combines her plastic work with the harmony of music and the richness of sounds which warps between the recognizable notes until becoming a reach and melodious panorama. The inclusion of composers and sound specialists in the creative process is perfectly consistent with the objectives of the artist, searching permanently the social and creative integration. Two installations with complete antagonistic starting points are created through an intimate, elegant and deliberate minimalist language. On this occasion, the responsibility of color seems to have been assumed by the music, and the intention to reach the public is as direct as a sword right in the middle of the heart. Maybe for this reason, it is not easy to relate both of them with the vivacious, happy and perceptive personality of its author. Nevertheless, it is evident that the interests of the artist keep her always from the easy concession in order to please. Grimanesa can disturb, can transgress, but it is when she questions, that she will never leave us indifferent.

Read More:
Between Presence and Absence: New Works of Grimanesa Amorós essay by Marek Bartelik
Falling Tell Me Your Story essay by Diane R Karp